When will people learn that putting stuff like this into your body is bad for you. Cigarettes - bad. Marijuana - bad. Artificial marijuana - bad. Bath salts - bad. Beer and some fine single malt scotch - probably not great but ya gotta live for something.....

They weren't exactly fine with it according to the article, just resigned to the reality that you can't follow your teenager around all the time. Teens do a lot of things away from home and their parents can't do anything about it.

The problem with the fake stuff is that you can overdose on it. Actual marijuana is much, much, much more difficult to overdose on. I had a client who overdosed on the stuff and spoke gibberish for three days. Scarry.

They weren't exactly fine with it according to the article, just resigned to the reality that you can't follow your teenager around all the time. Teens do a lot of things away from home and their parents can't do anything about it.

They said that if she had smoked pot in the house, she'd be grounded. But, smoking pot elsewhere, no consequences?

Why not ground her (their punishment choice, I'd have made her volunteer to work with addicts) for smoking pot anywhere? No, you can't follow them around 100% of the time, but that doesn't mean that you just let them ruin their lives, 'just don't ruin your life in our house' I guess was their view.

The nose piercing and brightly colored hair are fairly mainstream, actually. I would advise against assuming anything based on her appearance alone.

I expect we'll see the market for ineffective and dangerous pseudo-drugs expand into entirely new demographics, now that the Obama administration is "cracking down" on pain medication. When the government bans the stuff that doesn't kill you, what's the alternative?

Now, lets see the stats on how many people wind up in the hospital on life support after smoking "actual marijuana" I'll just throw out a guess, how about zero?Of course it was inevitable that once the government decided it had the responsibility to take care of it's citizens, it had to make sure and remove all the sharp objects from our play area. The problem is that when humans decide they don't like the reality with which they're presented they can be very clever in finding workarounds. One can only imagine who would be our current president if Obama and the "choom gang" had been forced to resort to fake marijuana. But don't you worry, we'll make new laws, yes we will. legislation fixes everything.

They said that if she had smoked pot in the house, she'd be grounded. But, smoking pot elsewhere, no consequences?

From the article:

Bryant already knew she used real marijuana occasionally. "It's not that I condoned it," he said, adding that he couldn't follow her around all day. Bryant enforces a strict no-smoking rule in the house, and said that if he ever caught Emily smoking, she'd be grounded.

Ever raised a teen? Do you remember being a teen? They do things their parents don't like and most of the time, nothing bad happens.

John, my experience is the same as yours. The worst I have heard of is people having panic attacks who were not experienced smokers or who did not know how strong the marijuana is.

I have never heard or read of three days of tripping from any weed ever. I was being cautious in not saying it was impossible, but I have never heard of it.

There is one case of LSD overdose that I am familiar with. The people doing the research gave the LSD to an elephant, hoping it would induce the elephant into a rage called musth. They figured that they could induce the rage with the drug, then say how bad it was.

The only problem was that there were no dosage guidelines for pachyderms. So the intrepid researcher took the known dosage for a mouse, and multiplied it up to the elephants weight.

The poor animal died quickly after administration. Here is a link that reports the incident: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_history4.shtml

Sad story really. But I was just being cautious in saying that it was difficult to overdose on marijuana.

First, she looks fairly normal as things go today and she apparently kept a substantial GPA so she was at least paying attention.

What I can't get over is how no one here seems to notice the other story here. It seems that the dear doctors were convinced she had no chance. They removed life support so she would go. She was given (what they never publicly call a "terminal") dose of morphine. And yet....

So much for the scientific prognosis for such a patient. And yet the family is still "waiting for a prognosis" from the rehab folk. Didn't they learn that such a prognosis is never to be relied upon?

Someone was laughing at how the story was written. I think some of that came because it is so counter the current, death loving, narrative we get day in and day out. It was trying to make one point while trying very hard to circumvent another.

Just how would anyone prevent this? The stuff said "not for human consumption" right on the package.

You try to teach kids to make smart decisions, but that's really herding cats. This kind of thing will never stop happening. If you will ingest unknown chemicals even when warned not to then bad shit will happen. I thank her for sacrificing herself to send a useful, but obvious, message. Be careful what you put in your body. I'm not even saying don't do drugs, just be careful what you put in your body. This wasn't even a drug anymore than Ajax cleanser is.

The problem with teenagers is that they only listen to other teens. Remember: "Don't trust anyone over 30."

So... everyone knew it was a drug, but the law prevented it from being labeled as such.Which also meant there could be no dosage guidelines. and as a consequence she OD'd.See, the law worked exactly as it was supposed to. The response when a well intended law results in adverse action is "but we had to do something" Is it not possible that something might occasionally be nothing?

Now, lets see the stats on how many people wind up in the hospital on life support after smoking "actual marijuana" I'll just throw out a guess, how about zero?

Some people have adverse reactions, but the number who wind up dead or near death from the drug is basically zero, yeah. The main reason for pot-related emergency room visits is the "I got high, did something dumb and hurt myself" thing.

I was one year out of high school and completely inexperienced with recreational drugs and I wanted to change that.

I got some quantity of hashish from a friend of a friend. Maybe it was a half-gram. I'm not sure. It was a long time ago.

I swallowed it like a pill because I didn't smoke. Tasted like crap.

Nothing happened at all. I was disappointed and eventually it was time to go to bed.

I awoke an hour or two later to find myself befuddled in a void of complete blackness, except reality kept presenting itself to me -- over and over again, in rapid fire succession -- as a two-dimensional image that whooshed in from a vast distance at light speed to zip past my face, as if reality were a comet and I were a planet.

It wasn't too long before God appeared in my bedroom and He was not pleased with me, to say the least. In fact, He was downright pissed off. Angry God in your bedroom? That's no fun at all.

That part of the trip I spent cowering on my knees with my face pressed to the floor.

Notice the total lack of evidence presented in the article that her strokes were caused by the drug. Notice the very amusing stretch to pretend this girl was an Everygirl, and the family was an Everyfamily.

Notice the total lack of evidence presented in the article that her strokes were caused by the drug. Notice the very amusing stretch to pretend this girl was an Everygirl, and the family was an Everyfamily.

Your first point I agree with. Your second point, I didn't get that from the article.

"The label was just there as a legal cover. Everyone involved knew what it was for."

Is that really true? When I was a younger idiot, we turned lots of regular products into "drugs" entirely through our own mythology. It was usually bullshit, since they rarely worked to get you high. It's what kids do. They make up myths, they believe them, they try things. I just think kids will do this with or without any help from manufacturers. When it goes bad like this, it tends to end that particular myth for most believers.

"Is that really true? When I was a younger idiot, we turned lots of regular products into "drugs" entirely through our own mythology."

As a teenager I watched as someone tried desperately to smoke a banana peel. Between bouts of laughter I debated whether or not to tell the individual precisely why trying to smoke a -fresh banana peel- wouldn't work.

That experience amongst others has kept me clear of drugs and addiction throughout my life because ... really ... who needs more opportunities to look like an imbecile?

I'm all for legalizing marijuana. But that's not going to make other illegal drugs, including spice or designer drugs, go away.

The only reason anyone smokes something like "spice" is that they can't get actual drugs.

That's largely true for designer drugs as well. People create new chemicals not because there's something inadequate about ecstasy or LSD, but because selling ecstasy and LSD will get you decades in Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison and a new unscheduled chemical will not.

"The label was just there as a legal cover. Everyone involved knew what it was for."

Is that really true?

In the case of 'spice', yes, it is really true. That's not to say there aren't plenty of other things that kids try smoking that were not made for that. That may well be how some of the ingredients in 'spice' where found. But 'spice' is truly made for that one purpose.

Revenant wrote:People create new chemicals not because there's something inadequate about ecstasy or LSD, but because selling ecstasy and LSD will get you decades in Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison and a new unscheduled chemical will not.

If your new drug causes people to have strokes and go into comas or bite peoples faces off before dying, perhaps there will be room at the Pound Me in the Ass prison for you too.

I wonder if some before-and-after video of Emily [...] would be a powerful example to other kids of what synthetic pot can do.

Or a powerful example of what the war on drugs does. :)

The big problem is that drug warriors have been lying to high school kids for so many decades that they get tuned out. Nobody interested in drugs is going to listen to the authorities about the dangers involved because they know the authorities will say "it is incredibly dangerous and can kill you" regardless of whether or not there's any truth to that.

So if you want to know if something's dangerous, you don't ask the people who lie to you all the time. You ask people you trust -- which in this case is usually "other drug users".

Levi Starks wrote:So... everyone knew it was a drug, but the law prevented it from being labeled as such.Which also meant there could be no dosage guidelines. and as a consequence she OD'd.See, the law worked exactly as it was supposed to. The response when a well intended law results in adverse action is "but we had to do something" Is it not possible that something might occasionally be nothing?

You want the FDA to provide dosing guidelines for pot and heroin? LIke it was omeprazole or Tylenol?Funny, if people start dying when using THOSE drugs they instantly are taken off the market and the manufacture potentially faces multimillion dollar lawsuits.

Revenant wrote:The big problem is that drug warriors have been lying to high school kids for so many decades that they get tuned out. Nobody interested in drugs is going to listen to the authorities about the dangers involved because they know the authorities will say "it is incredibly dangerous and can kill you" regardless of whether or not there's any truth to that.

A lot of these drugs can kill you. Pot less so. But pot may impact on childrens brains, which are still developing.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/27/health/health-teen-pot/index.html

I'm sure that's just propaganda of the Reefer Madness crowd. But, what if it isn't and it can actually impact on childrens developing brains?

If your new drug causes people to have strokes and go into comas or bite peoples faces off before dying, perhaps there will be room at the Pound Me in the Ass prison for you too.

I'm not aware of any recreational drug, designer or otherwise, that causes either of those things as part of regular use. Cases of abuse and overuse usually result in civil, not criminal, liability -- think "tobacco and alcohol industries".

But regardless, "hm, if someone has an adverse reaction I could go to jail" is preferable to "I can go to jail even if there are no adverse reactions and all the users enjoy the experience".

A lot of these drugs can kill you. Pot less so. But pot may impact on childrens brains, which are still developing.

If by "less so" you mean "basically not at all" then yes. High school sports are more likely to kill or permanently damage you than smoking marijuana is.

In any event you're missing the point. I'm not saying the drug is harmless, I'm saying authority figures routinely lie about its dangers. They don't say, e.g., "if you smoke marijuana heavily for years you might mess up your brain". They say shit like "if you smoke marijuana even once you might get AIDS" (which, yes, was an actual commercial on TV when I was in college). When you know for a fact that the people telling you not to do drugs are lying to you about the dangers, you don't trust them about ANY of the dangers.

Ever heard of "scarring" and "pus"? "Punching a hole through one's septum" isn't healthy no matter how much one explains it away.

It is neither more nor less healthy than getting your ears pierced. Same risks, same rewards.

This is a generational thing, I think. Baby boomers and earlier generations tend to have an extreme reaction to tattoos and piercings. People of my generation or younger generally don't, in my experience.

The plus side to nose jewelry, facials tats, and pink hair is that you don't have to go looking for a drug dealer. They find you....As a marketing tool, commercial pot dealers should consider dyeing their product in bright, child friendly colors like this potpurri. Packaging is sometimes more important than product. Marijuana looks drab and unexciting.

Revenant wrote:In any event you're missing the point. I'm not saying the drug is harmless, I'm saying authority figures routinely lie about its dangers. They don't say, e.g., "if you smoke marijuana heavily for years you might mess up your brain". They say shit like "if you smoke marijuana even once you might get AIDS" (which, yes, was an actual commercial on TV when I was in college). When you know for a fact that the people telling you not to do drugs are lying to you about the dangers, you don't trust them about ANY of the dangers.

I think this may be true, SOMEWHAT of pot, but less true of many other drugs. So the argument for legalization may work for one but not the other. I do agree that the experts shouldn't oversell the dangers (i.e. saying you'll get aids from pot sounds extreme) But certainly the actual dangers should be discussed.And pot is not neutral. Even if you dont keel over and die from it it can cause issues, especialy if you are a developing teenager with a developing brain.Also, smoking may not cause OD's but eating pot can. Because smoking causes it to get into your blood so quickly you would probably pass out before you ever smoked enough to get high.But eating brownies could be more serious since it takes a while for it to reach your blood stream so you might ingest a lot more than you can handle and not feel the effects right away.And then of course there are the lung issues.

But all drugs have this potentiall for abuse. Of all the illegal ones I think pot probably has the best case to be made for legalization, though I dont think it will have teh intended effect (i.e. lowering of crime)And at ay rate, even if pot should be legal it doesn't mean that say heroin or bath salts should be legal.

will you die from eathing too much pot? I've never heard of that happening (unlike saying OD'ing on heroin). But I have heard of people eating pot and then having to go to the hospital and feeling the effects for a couple of days.

So..... we are not supposed to feel bad if the self inflicted victim is some redneck goober whose last words before doing something fatally stupid are...."Hold my beer and watch this". That's funny....right?

BUT...we're supposed to feel bad that some pampered richy rich white girl with pink hair who has mutilated her own body and continues to self inflict harm upon herself by ingesting drugs into a fatally stupid stroke/coma/whatever.

Why? Is one stupid person better than the other? More acceptable to write off the goober, but we need to express sympathy for the pink haired middle class twat?

They are both stupid and wading in the shallow end of the gene pool as far as I'm concerned.

When bad things happen to good people, I feel bad. When stupid happens to stupid people and when they DO IT TO THEMSELVES...don't care.

What is it all of a sudden with the nose rings like you are a piece of cattle. Bizzare. Oh wait, smoking synthetic weed did what? Meh, guess it was worth it to get high. Have fun permanently damaged nose-ringed 16 year old. Sucks to be you. The red hair is a nice touch too. Made you look so edgy and different. Just like all the other kids that do it. tralala.

And this ladies and gentlemen sums up, in it's entirety, the entire cause and origin of leftism. If you display this one characteristic and apply it to all other endeavors, then any ends will justify the means to either control you, remove your money and your liberty, and if all else fails to kill you if necessary to promote this one and sole objective.

Whatever her current tastes were in piercings and lifestyle, that's not what she could have been 3 years from now. She was just like half the kids I knew 30 years ago (really, I'm from NYC), who now have college eds and good jobs. Now she's blind (BLIND!) and has lost half her brain. For once I'm out of snark. And I'm going to make my daughter read that.

I'm all for legalizing marijuana. But that's not going to make other illegal drugs, including spice or designer drugs, go away

They'll "go away" in the same way that bathtub gin and moonshine went away after booze was re-legalized. Sure, there are still examples of 'em happening, but NO WHERE like it was during Prohibition. If marijuana is re-legalized then the vast majority of tokers won't seek out the fakes 'cause they can get the real thing.

~~~~~~~~

smoking may not cause OD's but eating pot can.

Eating too much of anything will kill you. However, you'll die from eating too many potatoes before you'd die from eating too much marijuana.

The most common way people die from marijuana is being shot by cops 'cause you had some herb.

On the bright side, I'd rather see these kids going to convenience stores for their immpromptu highs. So much better than traipsing through the swamps looking for just the right toad to lick. Many of these kids lick the wrong toads and suffer disfiguring allergic reactions. And it is needless to say that not all mushrooms are magic. Mushrooms should be consumed with discretion and only under the supervision of a certified shaman. Also using Drano as an anal suppository does not lead to ecstatic visions.